My Second Chapter: The Matthew Ward Story

This is a review of My Second Chapter, the autobiographical book by Matthew Ward. The Matthew Ward story, My Second Chapter, was published by The Crown Publishing Group and WaterBrook Press in 2006 and is available on Kindle and Paperback. For many Matthew Ward will be known for his work as a singer, songwriter, and producer. Most notably, Matthew Ward and his sisters performed in the early Christian and ministry music group, 2nd Chapter of Acts, which Matthew reflects extensively on throughout this autobiographical narrative of his life. By 1970, the large nine-member Ward family experienced a traumatic upheaval as both of their parents died within two years of each other from incurable diseases. Nelly and Matthew, still in school, moved to Los Angeles to live with their older sister Annie, and her husband, a musical promoter and producer named Buck Herring. Annie and Buck Herring had only been married for about two years when they had suddenly become caretakers and parents for Matthew and Annie. Buck and Annie had also become followers of Jesus, as many were at the height of the Jesus Revolution, and were involved in a Spirit-filled church that would eventually help to lead Matthew and Nelly to Jesus as well. Mathew and Nelly also began to write and sing with Annie, their sister, and Buck knew there was something special about their harmonies and ability. They would eventually form a group that would become known as 2nd Chapter of Acts. It was not very long, until 2nd Chapter of Acts rose to notoriety throughout the 1970s, at the height of the formation of the Jesus People and Jesus Revolution Movement, while Matthew and Nelly were still in school. These three siblings frontline their group, which through the influence and friendship of Pat Boone and Barry McGuire, would become recognized at a large scale for their tight and intricate harmonies. In My Second Chapter, Matthew Ward shares stories of his upbringing, coming to faith, and the early days that led to the formation of their musician group. They are often listed as a forerunner of Contemporary Christian Music, which at the time of the Jesus Revolution was often referred to just as Jesus Music. Soon after becoming recognized at a large scale, 2nd Chapter of Acts began to extensively tour throughout the United States, and eventually the world. Until they disbanded in the late 1980s, they would consistently tour except for two sabbatical years. Their first three albums were released by Myrrh Records, and their scene and God’s leading allowed 2nd Chapter of Acts to create a tight friendship with early Jesus Music pioneers such as Billy Ray Hearn, Phil Keaggy, Keith Green, the Resurrection Band, and many others. In My Second Chapter, Ward unpacks his friendship with Phil, Keith, and others in a transparent but compassionate view through his experiences. As a fan of this early Jesus Music, these stories were worth the read alone. One of my favorite stories involved a Christmas Tree, while Matthew Ward was living with Keith and Melody Green at Last Days Ministries. I feel that it is important to share that My Second Chapter could have used significant influence, editing, and direction from a more professional editor and publishing company. There were times in this My Second Chapter by Mathew Ward, that it seemed scattered, and the narrative of Ward’s story jumped around a bit. At other moments, there was some verbiage that felt confusing to the congruence of the story, and even distracted from it. Without knowing for sure, I would assume that most of the approach to the writing and publishing of this book was self-edited and published. Despite the low-budget publishing, I believe any reader should be able to push past these inconsistencies and discover a beautiful read that conveys countless stories, truths, and unforgettable moments of Ward’s life, musical career, and faith journey. In their early writing sessions, Matthew Ward shared that this is when he first began

Matthew Ward is not just a wonderful person but a minister of the gospel of God and shares his journey in his book: "My Second chapter: The Matthew Ward Story." I feel it a priviledge to learn more about his story and how God uses him every day.

This is not a typical auto-biography. That is one of the best things about this book. I am the seventh reviewer of this book, and am currently the tie-breaker. The other six split evenly with five, four, and two star reviews. This book has reviews titled "Informative and Interesting" and "Unemotional and Unsatisfying Autobiography That Provides Few Interesting Stories". Obviously, you'll think one of those descriptions is wrong. I've seen a couple of other items where the ratings are fairly even between all five ratings, and on those I advise readers not to base a decision based on only one review. While this is similar, I feel this is different, because there are twice as many four and five star reviews (more than that if you count mine) as there are one and two reviews. What makes this bio unique? There are no pictures in it. There is little reference to the recording and contents by Matthew either solo or with 2nd Chapter (though there's a little more of the former), as there is in the biographies of Keith Green ("No Compromise" by Melody Green) or Tori Amos ("Pretty Good Years" by Jay S. Jacobs). This is definitely not a tell-all book, and if it is in any capacity, it is telling on Matthew. Also, it is not straight chronological, but a little more thematic. True, like many other autobiographies (e.g. "Quiet Strength" by Tony Dungy), the first chapter is not the first one chronologically, because he's trying to create interest. But once you get past chapter three, the chapters are more thematic, than strictly time oriented. In addition, there are insets in most of the chapters, almost all telling about something in line with the chapter. (The exception is in his chapter about dealing with cancer, the inset lists other artists he collaborated with -- interesting and one I was glad to see, but not on subject with the chapter.) One thing I like about this book is that Matthew does not portray himself as a super saint. The negative review stated above mentioned that Matthew made fun of a handicapped teacher. The full story is Matthew accounted of how he HAD (past tense) made fun of the teacher. First, this is Matthew pointing out his flaws, and second, this is consistent with Matthew being a class clown, which he admits to. If you read carefully, the truly negative comments he made about others were people he wouldn't name. On the other hand, he pointed out he butted heads with people (such as his brother-in-law Buck Herring) while at the same time making it seem like they simply disagreed. He also uses a lot of humor in this book, a large portion being self-depriciating. The two negative reviews mentioned that Matthew preferred secular rock to CCM. But why? Simple -- he'd rather listen to good quality music he disagrees with lyrically than to lyrics he agrees with with inferior recording. He's an artist, not a clergyman, and so let's not fault him with that. By the way, these comments were in his chapter on music. He

Being a Matthew Ward fan since the 70's I was so excited when I heard he had written his story. I was not disappointed! I read it out loud to my family and we all enjoyed it. I was entertained, encouraged and uplifted. I would highly recommend this to anyone who is familiar with Second Chapter and Matthew Ward. Well, even if someone is not familiar it would be a good time to get to know him and his music!

In the interest of full disclosure, I was a "sometimes" fan of the music of The 2nd Chapter of Acts (especially the early stuff), and promoted a concert with them and Barry McGuire in Central Ohio back in the mid-Seventies. In fact, Matthew stayed at my house when they were in town (as they were in the habit of doing in each town at the time). I was then, and remain today, a huge fan of his amazing singing voice. While I hadn't been following his career too closely over the past 15 years, it was still with great interest that I read this book (devouring it within a day, despite my busy schedule). If you were a fan of Christian music in the Seventies and Eighties, you know that things were very different then than they are today, and even within that musical subset, The 2nd Chapter of Acts was quite unique as a group. I knew some of their background, but the book gives a lot more infomation about their parents' deaths at an early age, and how Matt (and his sister Nellie) were shipped off to California to live with their older sister Annie and her new husband, Buck Herring. There is a very honest retelling of Matthew's sometimes difficult relationship with Buck, who was pretty controlling, and it's very interesting to see how the group came to be, and the history of how things developed over the next couple of decades. There is also a fairly in-depth account of Matt's frightening experience with cancer in the Nineties (which involved both surgery and chemo). I can't imagine that there's a huge audience out there for this book...you'd have to have been a fan of the band for it to make much sense. But I certainly enjoyed it, and would definitely recommend it to fans of the band from so many years ago.

This book is the autobiography of Matthew Ward. It was Matthew and his two sister's that made up the popular 70's and 80's group The 2nd Chapter Of Acts that transformed Christian Music forever. In "My 2nd Chapter", Matthew shares with us, in his humorous and honest way, stories from his life dating back to his early childhood, his days with the 2nd Chapter of Acts, his battle with cancer, his views on the music scene today, how God continues to change his spiritual perspective and what he is up to these days. I highly recommend it to all esspically Matthew Ward and 2nd Chapter of Acts fans. Being a huge fan myself, I loved this book. I hope you all enjoy this book as much as I have. It will encourage you to seek the Lord and totally surrender your life. His life is a great example of what God can do when someone gives it all.